Handheld electronic communications devices have a number of shortcoming. For instance, the method of alerting the user of an incoming communication may not be appropriate for the user's situation, and the user may forget to set it for that situation. For example, a ringing cell phone would be inappropriate in a movie theater, while a vibrating cell phone might be ineffective if it's in a purse. Further, communication may take place in several different forms (e.g., voice, text, graphics), and the preferred method may depend on the user's status at the time. Another shortcoming is that people who wish to communicate with the user have no way of knowing what the user's status is, and therefore have no way of knowing which method of communication would be best, or if communication should be delayed until another time. Conventional communications devices have no way to automatically make these choices, because they have no way of determining the relevant information.